Christmas....

What a great Christmas! Awesome Christmas Eve Services at NewSpring (be sure to check out the new design for NewSpring) and spending time with Deanna's family in Belton. Hanging with my family, Liberty Bowl, etc. WOW!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

NYWC 2006 Update

Lots of great stuff at the convention yesterday. Listened to Tony Campolo in the second general session. Was not sure about him, but was actually very thought provoking. Her are some thoughts from the session:

• Because we have the cure (Jesus) for the sickness/illness (sin) in all of us that it should create an INTENSE responsibility to take the cure to everyone!
• Our obligation is to instill a passion in young people to win people to Christ.
• We need to care about those that are spit upon and uncared for. We need to care for the oppressed!
• God's call is DANGEROUS!!
  
• We do not take God where He is not, but we meet Him where He is already working.
• Always do what's right and leave the end result to God.
• Every students should come out of our group and be able to feel the needs and pain of those around them.
• He closed with this question: "Are you failing your young people because there is a lack of spiritual depth n your life?"

Session closed with us singing accapella, "spirit of the Living God fall fresh on us." Very moving. Then got a viewing of the new NOOMA video, BREATHE. Very powerful!!

Not to mention all the sessions that we attended. To close the night, I attended a Middle School Ministry Lab with some fellow middle school workers to discuss issues problems and share the "wins" in ministry.

Off to general Session #3 with Philip Yancey and worship lead by Starfield.

NYWC - National Youth Workers Convention 2006 Charlotte, NC

Ok, I am on my second day of the convention. The over arching theme that I am hearing so far is ..... that you MUST take careful consideration of who your volunteers are and how you INVITE them into ministry.

• What is the process?
• Is it clear?
• Do they know the expectations?
• How are you going to care for them?
• How are you going to train them?

I am already starting to process and evaluate our overall student ministry and how we do this! I am excited about this process and what will come of it! Volunteer leaders are ESSENTIAL!!!

HUGE shout out to Katie Edwards, Director of Student ministry Volunteers at Saddleback Church, for taking the time to talk to us and answer our many questions about the volunteer process at Saddleback. YOU ROCK!!! Thanks for the insight and your willingness to share your passion to enable your leaders!!

Yesterday and NYWC.....

Yesterday, my friend, Jaime Salmon asked me this simple question. "Alden, what happened on October 26, 2006?" I thought for a moment and said, "I am not sure, but that day sounds really familiar to me." His response: "Well, it should because that this the last time you posted on your blog!"

Jaime, thanks for reminding me of my slackness and inability to faithfully post. I appreciate the encouragement from you! HAHAHAHA! I am just kidding!

Today is the beginning of the NYWC (National Youth Worker's Convention) here in Charlotte. Sandy Gibbes and myself are hear to refresh, learn, unwind, and have a lot of fun. I have been praying that God would really teach me something new in this time away from my normal routine.

This morning I read in Hebrews 12:1-13, which it takes about discipline and receiving it from God. Well, I am not sure if what that means for this conference, but in my life may I always receive discipline in the LOVE that God gives it. Not with a complaining, whining heart!

Pray for us today as we are participating in some early seminars (Sandy: Starting Right in Your First Two Years of Ministry by Doug Fields and Kurt Johnston & Alden: Marriage and ministry by Jim & Cathy Burns). I will post some insights and info later as the conference rolls through the weekend!!

CATALYST 2006: Marcus Buckingham...

(I know that I have been really behind in getting up some notes from Catalyst. I have been really busy...last 2 weeks I have spoken 10+ times, lots of planning with the Middle School Ministry, and much more!)

Here are some notes from the session with Marcus Buckingham at Catalyst 2006:

• In all great teams they have:
  
• A GREAT Manager (How long you stay, how well you succeed, how well you do your job depends on your manager.)
• What is the job of the manager?
  
• To turn one person's talent into performance.
• The best managers are able to see the growth in a person and IT keeps you going!
• People are always a work in progress.
• One thing I know about GREAT Managers:
• They find out what is UNIQUE about each person and capitalize on it.
• This is a great challenge of managing people.
• 3 Myths that you have been taught and believe:
• As you grow, your personality changes
• TRUTH: As you grow, you become more and more of who you really are!
  
• You will grow the most in your area of weaknesses
• TRUTH: You will grow the most in your strengths, in that an area of your GREATEST strength!
  
• The team need the most of you is to chip in
• TRUTH: The team needs you to focus on your strengths and give it to the team. If each person does this you will have a well rounded team!
• "And the day came when the risk it took to remain in the bud, became greater than the day it took to blossom."

I enjoyed listening to Marcus Buckingham. He did a good job talking about playing to your strengths, but I really enjoyed learning about managing people. That is something that I have been trying to read an study more. Good information. I think that I will read some of his books:

• Now, Discover Your Strengths
• The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

I have already acquired the first two listed. If anyone would like to get me the third, just let me know. Leave a comment!!! Have a great one!

Think about this.....

Andy Stanley opened the Catalyst Conference with this quote from scripture:

"The Most High God is Sovereign over the kingdoms of man and does with them as He wishes."

This should liberate and free us from fear. God is sovereign, He has placed you in the place of leadership for a reason...Lead like it!!

Andy commented that, our leadership:

• Is A Gift
• Is Temporary
  
• Will be held Accountable

Great leadership advice!

CATALYST 2006

I just returned from Catalyst Conference 2006. It was an awesome! Over the next couple of days, I am going to post some of the comments that hit me the hardest. Check back soon! Now, I am going to tell my wife all about it! PEACE OUT!!

Looking Forward.....

Today, has been a great day! My wife and I slept in a later than normal. I got up and fixed up some breakfast (cinnamon rolls!!!). Cut the grass, relaxed, washed clothes, grilled out, and watching some College Football. What a great day! I always look forward to our Saturdays, when we can just chill out with one another! It doesn't get much better than that!

I am also looking forward to tomorrow! Every Saturday, I look forward to Sunday. Tomorrow, will be a GREAT day! There are going to be a ton of people at NewSpring, Lindsay Owens (our New Middle School Ministry Assistant) joins the team tomorrow, we will be having IGNITE at the main campus, and Jesus is going to rock some lives of some people tomorrow!!

I hope that you are looking forward to tomorrow, if you are in the area - join us at NEWSPRING Church (services at 9:15AM, 11:15AM, and 6:00PM)! Have a great tomorrow!!

WOW!!!

8289 people in attendance!
214 salvations!

Check out our pastor's thoughts here.

Thank you God for the opportunity to see that happen!!

Oh, by the way, we had 175 middle school students at the FUSEBOX for IGNITE!! God is doing some great stuff.

I am also very excited that Lindsey Owens is joining the Middle School Staff! She is the new Middle School Assistant and will add a TON of experience, knowledge, wisdom, and the much needed "feminine touch!" Welcome to the team, Lindsey!!!!

New Series...Change...Fun Times

Last Sunday, we started a new series called: MySpace.com. We are focusing on Friendships. We are going to answer some questions such as: What are true friendships? What are some qualities of friendships? What is an example of true friendships?

I spent the time, last Sunday, telling the amazing of David and Jonathan from 1 Samuel. This week we are going to be looking at the qualities of loyalty and common faith.! Should be a great time! We will also have a special visit from TONY MACARONI, our Italian friend.

Also next week, we are going to be meeting on the main campus at NewSpring. We are having a special service and wanting everyone on the main campus! Be praying for me an the Middle School staff as we are planning and working out all the logistics of next week. It will be a challenge, but I LOVE challenges and seeing them happen!

More to come later!

OVERWHELMED...

It has been a few days since I posted. First of all the past couple of days have been amazing. Allow me to share a story about my most recent Sunday night.

"We just got finished with pickup at Ignite - the water gun fight was over, David had just taught a GREAT lesson on THINKing before you peak - and all the students are gone. I gathered the staff together and gave directions to the Smith's house. We were all very excited about eating a home cooked meal together. I was one of the last to leave the FUSEBOX, I was halfway into my 15-20 minute ride to the Smith's house and my cell rang. On the other end, was my boss telling me that the alarm had gone off at the FUSEBOX. He asked "Can you go check it out?" I very reluctantly said, "Yes!" Much to my dismay/anger/unhappiness, the alarm was NOT going off when I arrived back at the FUSEBOX.

I proceeded to get back in my car and begin my journey once more. During my ride to the Smith's house I proceeded to get really mad about the fact that I had to turn around and miss some awesome time with my volunteers leaders. Well, I finally arrived and everyone was already eating and having a great time. So, naturally I was a little more frustrated. Anyways, I got some food (Anna made this chicken lasagna, WOW! It was out of this world, I literally scraped the pan it was in), and waited on dessert. Got my dessert (I was second in line!!) and sat on the porch and waited for some people to join me. Anna Smith makes a to die for Swiss Chocolate Cake with Hershey Bar Pieces. It is awesome! David Hall walks outside and tells me that Mr. Smith needs to talk to me.

So, I walk inside and asked Mr. Smith what he needed, and then David brings in a bag and tells me congratulations on my one year anniversary at NewSpring working in Student Ministry. All the leaders were hooting and hollering and acting like a bunch of Middle Schoolers (GO FIGURE!) So I open the card first and they start chanting open the gift. I open up the bag and a leather wallet looking thing is on top. I smiled, because lately I was carrying a velcro wallet (Yes, the one you carried in 5th-6th grade)! It made me laugh, but much to my surprise, I looked down and there was an iPOD in the bag. WHAT?!?!? Yes!!!! My staff and volunteer team gave me a video iPOD! I was overwhelmed!"

I was speechless (Now that was a surprise to everyone!) I always have talked about wanting an iPOD, but could never get one! NOW, I HAVE ONE!!! YES!!!

Let me say this, the iPOD is GREAT! I love it, but the thing that overwhelmed me the most was the fact that my staff and leaders thought enough of me to get me this awesome gift. That college students would give money (that a lot of them do not have a lot of) to a gift for me was out of this world! I have the BEST staff and the BEST leaders! You all hit it out of the park each and every week! You make a difference in the lives of students each week! God is using you in some awesome ways, oh by the way; we have only hit the tip of the iceberg of what God is going to do through this ministry.

Once again, thank you for the iPOD, but more importantly thank you for serving Jesus through IGNITE and allowing me the privilege to be the leader of an awesome team. YOU ALL ROCK MY FACE OFF!! Here is a salute to all of you: YOU GUYS ARE PHENOMINAL!!!

To close the story: After I opened the gift and tried to say a few words. I sat down at a table with Brittney Harris and Scott Murray and some other people. I was talking to Scott as he was explaining everything to me about my new iPOD. I look at him and said, "I feel like a complete jerk for being ill and mad about turning around and then I get the socks blessed off of me! Sorry God! Thank you for loving me in spite of me!!"

What a great day! See you later! Don't forget First Wednesday tonight at 6:30PM!!

Progress....

We are continuing our work on a new space for our students at the Anderson Mall. It has been filled with a lot of scraping, sanding, carpet pulling, getting tile up, knocking down some walls, and a whole lot of clean up. Carpet is going down today, paint is on the walls, ceiling tiles are being installed as well. Now all we need is the furniture, gaming stuff, and some little extras.

Also we are in he process of changing the structure of how we organize Ignite and the staff responsibilities. It is quite exciting as you see vision start to unfold and take place.

I am in the middle of a 2 week speaking break at IGNITE. John Flowers and David Hall have been taking the reigns and running with it. John did a very good job this past week and David is ready to go this week. Should be a good time! This time has been invaluable to be to watch from a different perspective, to get some things done that need to handled, and to see some areas that need work!

That is about it for now...by the way College Football starts tonight! USC Gamecocks take on Mississippi State Bulldogs at 8PM! Go Gamecocks!

M.I.A.....

Well for the past couple of days, I have been M.I.A on my blog. Last week I spent from Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday (I will be there today) at the FUSEBOX. We are in the middle of some major renovations of the place. We have knocked down a wall, built back another, built a new check-in counter in the back, rewired the lights and sound along with moving the sound board and light board.

We also just took over the lease for a new place in the mall are in the middle of trying to outfit that section as well. Today we have to try to finish up as much as possible as carpet and ceiling tiles will be arriving on Thursday. SO much to do and so little time!! If you have some time to spare head out to the FUSEBOX, we can put you to work!

By the way, HUGE / BIG Shout out to Dale Sellers and Jeff Scott. Dale is taking care of the demo and reconstruction of all that we are doing and Jeff is our electrical GENIUS. These guys have put in a lot of time and energy in to helping us outfit both places. Both are doing a GREAT job! Thanks guys for your willingness to serve and for all you are doing for the kingdom, so students can hear the love of Jesus! YOU ROCK!

See you at the FUSEBOX!!

Congratulations!!!!!

A BIG shout out to Jonathan and Amber Herron as they are expecting!! Check out Jon's Blog for all the details. Jon and Amber, we are so excited for the both of you! You both will be excellent parents. God Bless in this wonderful adventure!

Sometimes you just need to DUCK....

It seems that I am always posting after IGNITE. I hate that I do this, but I found myself evaluating on Monday and being excited about all that happened at IGNITE and then I hit it hard for the rest of the week to make it happen again! I need to be a little more faithful in posting, although there are probably not that many faithful readers, but to the FEW and FAITHFUL: THANK YOU!

Needless to say, last night was really good! First of all it was exciting that last week was not just a jump in numbers. We had 178 students attend last night. We also had 6 students accept Christ as Lord and Savior. In the past three weeks there have been 37 salvations (average of 12 a week)! That is only from God!!

We continued our series called BASIC and discuss our Freedom in Christ. IGNITE is continuing to go great, but the problem we are running into is that our SMALL groups are not as small as they could be. Please pray with me that God would continue to raise up leaders to join us in the ministry to the Middle School Students in the Anderson area.

Oh here is a pic of the set design after our first week. (This picture was taken as a reference for us to remember were things went, so it was not taken with much detail in mind!) It has changed for the better with more sandbags (instead of two rows, we now have 4 rows), etc.

By the way, we "got" the students last night. As a part of the introduction to the lesson, I was reviewing some of the things we had talked about and I said, "Also sometimes you just need to learn how to duck..." At that point David and Andrew jumped up from behind some sandbags that we were using as stage design and SOAKED the students with water guns! The faces we priceless! It was chaos! After we got calmed down again, I said, "Not only do you need to duck, but you need to watch your back..." Then John came out from behind the students and got them from behind! It was GREAT! Nothing to do with the message, but something a little fun to do!!

Peace out for now!

Losing My Hair....

Last night, we had 179 students attend IGNITE last night! Wow! We also had 21 students accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. It was an awesome night! To top it off David, John, and lost all of our hair! Here are some pics from the event:

I am smiling, but I was thinking, "What in the world have I gotten myself into!!!"

I think Andrew is enjoying this a little too much!

There you go! All the hair is gone! (By the way, we made a deal with the students, if they would bring 160 students we would shave our heads. NOTE: When we made the deal about 3 weeks ago, we were running about 90 students!) Well, it was worth it to see 179 students hear the name of Jesus and 21 accept Him as Lord!

Yes....

There were three heads that got shaved tonight at IGNITE! Pics and details about the night will come tomorrow.

Ready for tonight.....

I am sitting hear finishing up the lesson for tonight with our series, "BASIC" on the topic of GRACE. I am excited about it and I pray that God will move in the life of our students tonight. Anyways, the BIG question at hand is: Will the Middle School Staff be "BALD" after tonight? Not sure, I guess we will see. If we are, then I will post a picture of it later! PEACE!

What's the address?!?!?

If you ever decide to go out and TP a house, you might want to make sure you have the right house! Check out this article and home video of what the police say, "This is the largest (toilet papering) case we've had in recent memory..." WOW! (Link via YSMarko)

Be careful all you youth pastors out there planning to take the kids!

Passion

The other day, I had the privilege to be in an interview for a position at our church.  Of course, I was told to ask any questions that came to my mind.  So…I did.  There was one question impaticular that I was glad I asked.  Not only to hear the person’s answer, but to ask myself this question.  

The question was, “In ministry, there is always something else to do, always something coming around the corner, always another phone call or letter, or email to write.  Your time will always be filled with something to do.  What is it that you enjoy doing that is a “release” for you?”

We get tired, which can lead to burnout if we are not careful.  Don’t always go and go and go and go that you end up neglecting everything else in your life.  This is something that I MUST be careful of in my life!  

Although, every night when I am going to bed and I am tired from a good day’s work, I am still thinking about ministry.  I am still thinking about my students.  

Recently, I started running (supposedly to train for a half-marathon) which has become a release for me.  Needless to say, that when I run, I am thinking about ministry.  Last week I was running on Wednesday and I remember finishing up my sermon for Sunday while I was running.  I am constantly thinking, dreaming, planning for ministry.  I can’t stop thinking about it!  Some would call me possessed, some may call me stupid, but I pray that it is seen as PASSION; passion for Jesus, for the lost, for middle school students, for the church, and so much more.  

At the end of the day, I am glad that I spent my energy and gave it my all, but I am so glad that I don’t get “weary, sick, tired” OF ministry!  Sometimes, it is so easy to get sick OF ministry.  I pray that when I get physically tired that I rest, but I also pray that I NEVER get sick OF ministry.  May God continue to swell up a passion in me that continues to grow and burn!  Thank you Jesus for allowing us to be a part of your Kingdom work!

NewSpring Middle School Staff

I had the awesome privilege to meet with the greatest Middle School Ministry Staff in the world! Andrew, David, and John do a great job at serving our students! So many awesome things are coming our way. I have been doing a lot of brainstorming about our ministry and how we function. In the future there will be changes to our volunteer leader structure, follow-up procedures, service evaluation, volunteer leader evaluation and interviews, and much more! That is a whole lot of stuff. The great thing about it is that God is totally in control of everything.

Andrew is the quiet, humble leader. He does an awesome job of leading the band and our students in worship each week. He takes time to prayerfully choose each song, work with me on set list, and spend as much time with students as possible!

David is all over the place. He is primary responsible for our follow up procedure. Each week he makes sure that all of our new students get a letter, phone call, handwritten letter, etc.! He also shares most of the responsibility for the care of our volunteers and campus group planning with John!

John is MR. CAPS LOCK! JOHN ALWAYS WRITES IN CAPS LOCK. IT QUITE A THING TO READ. JOHN IS OUR NEWEST ADDITION TO THE STAFF. JOHN SPENDS A LOT OF HIS TIME WRITING SKETCHES FOR VIDEOS, BRIANSTORMING ANY WILD IDEA THAT I COME UP WITH AND MUCH MORE. He also shares most of the responsibility for the care of our volunteers and campus group planning with David!

Both David and John are also preparing to speak at IGNITE in the very near future! John will be speaking on August 27th and David on September 3rd. They are going to do a great job!

All these guys are great! Thank you so much for your dedication and loyalty to Jesus Christ, NewSpring Church, the Middle School Students, and to me.

I look forward to see where God takes us in the future and I thankful to know that I have the right pieces in the right place and the right time for God to take us there! Keep up the GREAT work!

BASIC: LOVE

Last night was AWESOME! We began a new series at IGNITE called "BASIC." We are spending the next 4 weeks looking at some basic elements of the Christian life. Last night we talked about LOVE (How to love others) - 1 John 3:16-18. The sermon points were: 1. Love is Sacrificial; 2. Love is Generous; 3. Love takes Action.

We had 10 students accept Jesus as their Savior and Lord! WOW! It was great! Also we had a total of 143 middle school students hanging out with 30 leaders. What a great ratio of close to 5 students to 1 leader! God is continuing to do some awesome things at IGNITE!

BASIC......

I am so stoked about a new series that we are starting this week at IGNITE called BASIC. We are going to be going to boot camp and learning about some basic things about the Christian faith. We have decorated the stage to look like an army bunker, with sandbags, camo netting, ammunition boxes, bared wire (not real, just looks like it), and much more! It is going to be an awesome night!

Needless to say, David is going to shave his head if we have over 160 students present! It should be awesome!

LONG TIME & NEW STUFF.....

It has been a long time since I last posted. Summers - you have to love them! They are always filled with LOTS of activites and things to get done in ministry! We just completed our summer student camp at NewSpring. We went to Panama City Beach, FL and stayed at the Majestic Beach Towers! WOW! It was aweosme. Perry spoke, Lee and Band lead worship. God did some amazing things down there!

We have a lot more coing this summer in student minsitry! Be listening at the services for details. Also I just got invited to a new service called eBible.com. It is Beta right now, but is really awesome! I have three invites remaining. If you would like to be invited, please leave a comment and I will send you an invite! Trust me, it is awesome! Check out the blog for more information: http://blog.ebible.com

MEMORIAL DAY.....

Memorial Day is always fun! Today, I woke up at 10 AM, ate a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and read the paper. Then Deanna came home for lunch. I love being able to have lunch with my wife at home. After we ate, we sat on the couch and watched TV, while see fell asleep. After that I vacuumed the floors and clean the hardwood floors in the den and kitchen. I also installed a ventilation fan/light combo in the master bathroom! Just a reminder, attics are HOT! I was sweating all over the place! CRAZY!!

Now, Deanna is home and we are getting ready to head over the big metropolis of Pendleton, SC. We are going to a get together at the home of Saunders Gibbes, JT, Eddie, and John F. Should be lots of fun! I will post some pics later, from my NEW digital camera!!!

WHAT ELSE WHOULD I DO.........

What else would I do if I wasn't in the ministry? Yesterday this question was posed to me. My answer:

I do not know! I cannot see myself doing anything else. This is what God has called me to! He has called me to ministry, specifically to students and their families. For me, serving in ministry has to be something that it is the only thing you can do! If you can see yourself doing something else, go and do it!! My passion for ministry is something that is deep down inside of me, I can feel it, it is deep inside my bones, I think about it, I dream about it! Serving the Living God through ministry is all I WANT to do!!

So I pose this question, what are you passionate about? For me, it is serving God by serving and ministering to students! You may ask what do you mean by passionate, passion, etc. Try this: what do you dream about, think about, love being a part of?

THE PIECES......

The pieces are starting to come together for IGNITE, the Middle School Ministry at NewSpring Church. Since January 2006, God has given me the wonderful calling to be the pastor to the middle school students of NewSpring. Since that time, I have spent a lot of time in prayer, spent time dreaming, spent time studying, and spent time investing in people. Today, we hired another piece to puzzle as we continue to build the ministry and staff that God desires. Andrew, David, and John make up a wonderful team of people who love Jesus and love students! Each one has so many different gifts and talents! I cannot wait to see all of us mesh and see the strengths blossom in each one of us! Welcome to the team John!

I am excited about what the future holds for IGNITE, FUSE (High School Ministry), and NewSpring Church! God is already doing some awesome things in the lives of our students and I know that it is going to get even better! My prayer is that we will stay faithful to God's call on our lives!!

USE CAUTION.....

Use caution in heading over to Perry's Blog! You might just be offended! Check this link out!

Tonight at IGNITE....

Tonight at IGNITE, we had an awesome night! We are in the middle of a 5 week series called "Exposed," giving a biblical view on sex. Interesting topic tonight, we discussed "sexual sin." It was a semi-tense night! I think that my students are still in shock of some of the terms that I used. It was awesome to see their faces of shock! Next week, a genuine Q&A with the students!! ! Reading through the questions it should be very interesting!

Here are some of the questions:

1. Is making out wrong?
2. How far is too far before getting married?
3. Why do people look at porn?
4. How far is too far? (Be specific!)
5. How do you know if a guy is looking at you lustfully?
6. How do you dress modestly?
7. What do you do if you have already committed sexual sin?
8. What do you do when a guy wants to go further than you want too? How do you say no?

Let you know how it goes!

Check this out......

Do me a favor and head on over to Mr. Lee McDerment's Blog and read his post titled: "Calling All Critics." I have say....WOW! Homerun!

INTRODUCING......

Jonathan Ellis Neighbors

Born: May 8, 2006
Time: 6:37 AM
Weight: 9lbs. 6 oz.
Length: 21 inches
Parents: Ashley & Nathan Neighbors
Brother: Anderson

LONG TIME.....

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. Since March 1, God has been doing some awesome things in my life, my family, IGNITE Middle School Ministry, and NewSpring Church. At this time we are gearing up for the summer and focusing on our summer camp, The Gauntlet, which will be off the chain! Lee McD is going to be leading worship, Perry Noble is going to preaching, Majestic Beach Towers is providing the digs for the week, needless to say it is going to be AWESOME! To all studnets involved in IGNITE & FUSE, sign up TODAY!! You do not want to miss this!

**Side Note: March 8, 2006 at 6:37 AM, Jonathan Ellis Neighbors entered into this world! He weighed 9 lbs. 6ozs., and 21 inches long! Deanna and I are so blessed to have another nephew. Nathan and Ashley are wonderful parents and are thankful to have a healthy little boy! Anderson, his big brother, is very excited!! Pray for them as they go home today!!***

IGNITE LOGO

Ignite Poster

Familiar Verse To Us....

Familiar Verse To Us All....
 
Lately, the Lord has been moving in my heart and it has caused me to really turn to His Word. (When the Lord moves it can be exciting and scary-in a good way, I personally love it!!)
 
First of all let me say that God's word is timeless, sharper than a two-edged sword, creative, and the best book I have ever read. Secondly, I am so thankful that God had the great idea to give us the Bible.  I think back to the days when the Bible was being written, those guys did not even have the Bible and their faith was astounding.
 
As I have been spending time in God's Word and in communication with Him, God has been revealing so much to me. I want to take a verse that is familiar to a lot of people, some people say that it is their favorite verse, some quote it in tough times, etc. (By the way, isn't it great that God has something to say to us in every season of our lives! Go God!) Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
 
Notice that there are three things that we are to do: 1) Trust in the LORD with ALL your heart, 2) Lean NOT on your own understanding, 3) In ALL your ways acknowledge Him. What a minute....So, God is telling me that if I do these three things then my paths will be made straight? Yes, that is what the Lord is saying to all of us! WOW!!!
 
(Don't stop reading yet, keep on reading!!!)
 
Now we must be careful with those three things, they require all of you. I truly believe that the reason the heart is always the center point that we must give to God is because that is the center of who we are. My heart pumps blood to the rest of my body, which takes oxygen to my brain and other organs.  Without my heart there is no me! (I won't get into the whole scientific deal, because I would mess it up, but you get the idea!) 
 
With the promise that God gives in this verse, "and he will make your paths straight," we must remember that the path may not look straight to us. Not all paths we walk will look straight, there may be some that look windy, curving, hilly, and any other word that can be stated, but we have been given assurance that God has prepared that path for us. My prayer is that I will never depend on my own understanding (because it is very limited) but will walk the path that God has laid for me. 
 
Take a moment to really allow God to speak to you through His word. You will be amazed how clearly He will speak to you! “Be still and know that I am God…”  May God continue to bless you as you spend time with Him!

Messy side....

Tonight at IGNITE, I was informed of some stuff that would classify as the messy side of ministry (middle school DRAMA). We also had some students who came that would probably not be welcome at most churches. On the way home from the FUSEBOX, I had a thought from God. God spoke to me and all I could say was thanks! Thank you God, for allowing us to get neck deep in ministry, for allowing us to be apart of the “MESSY” side of ministry. Thank you for allowing students to feel comfortable to come to IGNITE and have fun. Thank you for allowing us to have great leaders that have built relationships with students that are open and honest!

TO ALL IGNITE LEADERS :: You are AWESOME! You are doing a PHEMONIAL job! Thank you for loving Jesus and loving students! You inspire me and spur me on! We are seeing God work and he is going to continue to move!

Taxes....

Okay, so I HATE having to do my taxes!  What a pain in the behind!  Does anyone else agree?

Correction.....

In a previous post, I made an error! I spelled a name wrong! Sorry GRANT LYERLY! You are the man!

Great Day.....

Today was a crazy but fun day! Got to work, check out messages, emails and all that fun stuff! By the way, the building is moving along and things are coming together! The children’s area is going to be unbelievable!!

Today I got the opportunity to hang out with John Flowers and David hall! Two of Ignite’s leaders! These guys have a passion for students. We rode to Clemson to interview some potential leaders and we ate at a place called Anchous (spelling wrong!!) I ate a sandwich called “BlackJack”! It was awesome!! John Flowers hooked us all up with some Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream; I had the “Chunky Monkey.” GREAT! Only bad part of the trip was that I got a parking ticket for $10. I was 5 minutes late to money in the meter and there was already a ticket! Hello!!!!! It takes longer than 5 minutes to write a ticket! Oh well.

Got back to the office to meet with the Ignite staff! What a great meeting we had. We planned out the service for this week and next week! It was awesome. These people have some great minds and a passion for our students to learn the truth of Jesus Christ! WOW! Tomorrow is the kickoff for Campus Groups at 7 PM! Things are rolling!

Now, I am at home and chillin! What a productive day! I am now going to leave and eat an awesome dinner with my AWESOME wife! Peace!

Busy.....

So I have taken a little break for a while!  So busy and so much to do!  Highlight of my day: leading an 8th grader to Christ on the phone!  YES, on the phone!  How wild is that!  Thursday, I am going to have lunch with him!  How awesome!  By the way, NewSpring moves in tour NEW building this Sunday!  It is going to be awesome.  See you there!

Today had Financial Peace class, Basketball game at 8:30.  Didn’t get there until halftime and they are down 16-21.  Come back and win 46-36!  Go NewSpring!  Great game in the 2nd Half!  Now, time to go to bed!  

Florence for a Day.....

I said I was going to post about my trip to Florence, which I have been really slack on, but here goes for the highlights:

Tuesday:

• Ate lunch with my former pastor, Kevin Qualls; Barry Moon, my good friend and cohort in crime, and Johnny McDaniel, new minister at FBC Florence. It was a great lunch and time of fellowship. I spent a good bit of time with Barry talking about all the things that were going on at the church and with his family. Deanna and I are very close to his whole family, Donna, Brittany, and Kara. It is always a blessing to spend time with him because I always walk away with a smile on my face and encouraged!


• Spent sometime with Danny Meetze, Youth Pastor at Calvary Baptist, and Brian Timney, Youth Pastor at Southside Baptist. These guys were “My Crew” for my time in Florence. We partnered in ministry for many different events! Solid Guys doing some solid ministry in Florence! Keep it up guys!


• FMU BCM…..What can I say? What a blast! The food was great, the fellowship even better, worship was awesome! Got to spend time with Kendal Danford, who has to be the best BCM Director in the state of South Carolina. Also spent some time with some of MY BOYS, Grant Lyerly and Cam Shepherd. (I drove 3 hours to hand out with them and Cam punked me for some girl he is hitting on! WRONG!!) These guys are solid and are going to make a huge impact on the world!! I always enjoyed being able to preach to that group! I spoke about living the UNSAFE LIFE. Going to where Jesus calls, doing what Jesus says, and saying what Jesus tells you to! God worked through the whole night (7 students accepted Christ! PRAISE THE LORD!)

Wednesday:

• Slept a little late got up and ate breakfast with my mom! She is the best!!! It was an awesome time to just hang out with my mom! I am so thankful that I have such a good relationship with my mom and dad, that we can just hang out and spend time together!


• Visited with Mammy, my grandmother on my dad’s side! My grandmother is the definition on Southern belle. Loves her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and loves life!


• Ate lunch with Warren, Kristie, and Chandler Merck at Redbone Alley! (Side note: if you are ever in Florence got to Redbone Alley, you will not be disappointed! Great atmosphere, great food!) I love this family! They have a son named Chesley, who is a royal pain in the b%#t, just kidding, who is an awesome young man! Chandler is the young lady that I posted about in HELPLESSNESS!?!?!?!? This lunch was someone of the lunches that just puts your life into perspective. I got the full story of what happened, the events leading up to the accident, the events afterwards, everything! To hear all of it and then to look on the faces of the family and see them smile, blessed my heart! They could not stop praising God for the miracle of saving Chandler! I heard a father talk of his love for his children, a mother talk about how precious time is with her children, a daughter talk about her thankfulness for her brother! WOW! Warren and Kristie, you are an example to me of how much I should love my children and how I should try to raise them! Thank you for your example and allowing Deanna and I to be a part of your lives and family! We love you! I spent sometime encouraging Chandler and telling her how excited I was that God performed this miracle in her life. I told her that God had something special planned for her and was going to use this event in her life to reach people in an amazing way. Needless, to say, this lunch changed my perspective on life! God allowed me to spend time with this family to be blessed! I wanted to be a blessing to them, but I got so much more than they got from me!

That is about it! What a great day and a half!

God, thank you for allowing me to experience some awesome stuff (salvations, miracles, blessings)! Use my life that I might be a vessel of hope and praise to others!

My Pastor......

Do me a favor and head on over to PerryNoble.com to check out this post!!

By the way, I love the fact that he communicates with his staff in such a clear way.  I am so thankful that Perry is my pastor!  

MOVING DAY.....

Today was awesome!  It was move in day at the new offices for NewSpring!  That place is amazing!  I love it over there!  What a great place to be a part of!  

I am going to be posting about my trip to Florence a little later!  Too busy to get my thoughts down!  One highlight of the trip was I got to eat lunch with the young lady, Chandler, that I posted about in my post titled HELPLESS!?!?!?!.  Tell you about it later!  It rocked my world!

Tomorrow.....

Tomorrow, I get to travel back to Florence, SC.  I have been invited to come and speak for the Francis Marion University Baptist Campus Ministry!  I spent a lot of time pouring into some students there and I look forward to getting to see some of them again!  Please pray that God would speak through me to them in a clear and relevant way!  I also look forward to spending time with Kendal Danford, the Campus Minister at FMU.  This man has a passion for college students and seeing them grow in their walk with Christ!  I am always encouraged by my time with him and always seem to learn a few things as well!

Also, I am going to catch lunch with my former pastor!  Should be a great trip to Florence, SC, although a little short!  I will post how it went a little later!

HELPLESS!?!?!?

Tuesday, I received many phone calls letting me know about an accident that one of my former youth was in while on a ski trip. Of course, my heart went out to her and her family! As it is with most situations, the story always gets a little messed up and I am sure that there were “many” different versions of the story floating around. Regardless, when I heard, I felt helpless!

Needless to say, I feel that when something goes wrong, I want to find the quickest solution and “fix” the problem (I am a guy and that is the way we think)! Well, I could not do a thing in this situation! I could not do anything, nothing, nada (you get the point)!

That was until I realized that I could ask my heavenly father to intervene. I could actually pour my heart out to God! WOW! I could do something, I could pray for the young girl and her family, the doctors and nurses!

**By the way, I was in a meeting when I received the call, I went back in and told the people about the situation. Their response was amazing! They stopped the meeting and we prayed! We collectively asked God to intervene! Thank you Michael, Sandy, and Meredith for being an awesome team to work with! You rock!**

Needless to say, the young lady is doing fine and it going to recover! Was it because of anything tangible that we could do? No, it was the wonderful working power of our Lord and Savior.

God, thank you for being the God that is totally in control. Thank you, for being the God that desires for his children to pour our hearts out to him! Thank you, for being the God that listens! Thank you God that we are NOT helpless in any situation, we can pour our hearts out to you! You are amazing!

New Year’s Resolutions.....

We make resolutions because we recognize a need, but it requires action and commitment!

If you made a New Year’s resolution, take action and keep the commitment!  If you know that you need to get in shape, don’t just join the gym and never go.  Commit to getting in shape, by going and working out!  (Can you guess what my resolution is?)